“We can’t leave without Candy,” Harmony said.
“Harm,” Cass said, grabbing her hand, desperation in her eyes. “We’ll find her when it’s safe. Please. We have to get off this mountain. We can’t search blind, and we’re no good to her if we’re dead. She’s probably found shelter. She might be safer than we are in this death box.”
Tosh moved forward with resignation in his eyes. “We’ll come back at first light. Mary’s right. There are more lives at risk than one. Candy runs when she’s overwhelmed. We won’t find her because she doesn’t want to be found.” He shook his head.
Harmony swallowed hard, then nodded once. “I don’t approve, but I’ll go with the majority vote on this one.”
“We’ll radio the station as soon as we’re back in range,” Efrain said. “Search and Rescue can’t launch in this, but they’ll be ready at first light.”
No one else argued. They wanted out of there . . . and they wanted to move fast.
They piled into vehicles, making sure no one was left behind. Mary slid into the backseat with Harmony and Cass, refusing to ride alone.
Deputy Ciscel strode from vehicle to vehicle with a flashlight, checking headcounts, his jaw clenched. He wasn’t there on official duty, but he was always an officer. “We can’t safely search until this lets up. The last thing we need is more bodies on that road.”
Engines coughed and caught. The first vehicle pulled out, and then it was a parade of headlights slicing through sheets of rain that fell in every direction. The road off the mountain twisted, a dark ribbon slick with mud, every turn a guess.
Cass gripped the wheel, squinting through the downpour. “This is insane!”
“Just drive slow,” Harmony said, voice steady despite her shaking hands. Behind them, the airport vanished into fog just as Candy had.
A branch crashed across the road. Cass swerved, barely missing it. “Dammit!”
Mary muttered from the backseat, warmed by wine. “The island’s realigning itself tonight.”
“You’re not helping,” Cass said through clenched teeth.
She drove with both hands white-knuckled on the wheel. Harmony braced herself, tossed side to side, scanning the road for anything that could kill them faster than the storm.
“See anything?” Cass shouted.
“Barely. Just water, lots and lots of water.” Harmony narrowed her eyes, the headlights carving a pale tunnel through the darkness. “Steady and slow. The last thing we need is to slide off this damn cliff.”
“Didn’t think of that. Thanks for putting it in my head,” Cass said, voice pitching higher.
Behind them, a vehicle fishtailed and then straightened. Cass nearly cried.
“We’re fine. We’re just fine,” Harmony assured her.
The storm roared so loud it felt like they were inside it. Wind howled through the canyons like a voice—long, low, furious. Harmony thought of Candy’s song and the line about dancing on borrowed time. Her chest tightened.
Lightning flashed. For a second, the mountainside lit up, revealing a fresh landslide spilling rock and mud across the road. The earth looked wrong, bulging and buckled.
Cass slammed the brakes. “Holy hell!”
“Go around,” Harmony ordered. “Stay left.”
“There is no left!”
“Then make one!”
The jeep slid sideways, wheels spinning before catching again. Cass let out a wild, hysterical laugh.
“If I die doing this, you’d better make it sound heroic!”
“Deal!” Harmony said, gripping the door handle until her knuckles screamed.
They lurched past the debris as another bolt struck somewhere behind them, washing everything in electric blue. For an instant, Harmony saw the ridgeline—and something moving along it. Too deliberate to be blown debris, too upright to be an animal, too still to be a branch. There, then gone.
